Epic Games is having to quickly make improvements to its new distribution platform following a torrent of complaints from disgruntled customers, and today it took some big steps toward making The Epic Game Store more competitive with Valve’s Steam. Namely, local pricing and changes to its much-lamented refund policy.
The lack of appropriate regional pricing on the Epic Game Store had meant some customers were paying up to three times the price of content available on Valve’s Steam. As Epic Games moved to secure exclusivity rights to PC distribution, that was causing a growing concern among users that they’d have no choice but to fork out inflated prices moving forward.
Thankfully, Director of Publishing Strategy at Epic Games Sergey Galyonkin took to Twitter today to outline the updated regional pricing support that users had been hoping for. He said:
“Epic Games store now supports 30 different regions (130 countries in total) for regional prices. We don’t have local pricing for all the countries yet, but that’s a start. We use US Dollars for now for most of them because adding regional currencies will take time.
And of course, if you’re paying with your local payment method, you’ll pay in your local currency. It’s just the price in the store will be displayed in US Dollars.”
Galyonkin also outlined some updates to the refund policy, which had been a particular point of friction for users of the store.
“We also changed our refund policy. Unlimited refunds within 14 days of purchase and under 2 hours played. The team is working on the self-service solution, but for now, you’ll have to go through player support.”
Originally, Epic Games required users to fill out an extensive and absurdly detailed form to qualify for a refund, which asked information that wasn’t necessarily easy for customers to find. The self-service solution that Galyonkin is a very positive sign of things to come.
